Hotel La Jolla, under new ownership, is taking another stab at creating a winning penthouse dining spot, following a seven-month shutdown of the 11-story property for a major renovation.

For those keeping count, there was Elario’s, also popular for a time as a jazz club; then there was the updated Crescent Shores Grill, followed, more recently, by Clay’s and The Grill at Hotel La Jolla.

And now there’s Cusp, which bears little resemblance to its predecessors, except for the panoramic views.

Also debuting this week is the seventh brewery restaurant from the Karl Strauss Brewing Company, to be located in 4S Ranch. And coming in August is a novel fusion of Italian and Japanese cuisine called Sora that teams a sushi chef from Nobu with the owner of Panevino, Greystone and Chocolat.

Here’s a look at the upcoming openings.

Cusp

After closing down the Hotel La Jolla last November for a major renovation following a change in ownership and a new operator, Kimpton is ready to show off the hotel’s new top-floor restaurant.

General Manager Mark Spears says the former restaurant was essentially gutted, leaving only the open kitchen in the middle of the dining room. The same floor-to-ceiling windows, though, still offer panoramic views of La Jolla, the coast and beyond.

Spears calls the new décor reminiscent of a designer beach cottage, accented in warm earth tones throughout. And the cuisine, he said, is coastal Mediterranean that will encompass Greek, Italian, Spanish and Moroccan dishes. Kimpton also installed a new pizza oven that will be used for flatbreads, as well as oven-roasted fare.

“When you walk off the elevator, you walk into the bar lounge area, and it’s floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic ocean views,” Spears said. “Previously, the bartender faced the view and the patrons had their back to the view, and we’ve flipped it around. And every seat in the dining room also has a great view.”

Karl Strauss Brewing Company

It’s been 10 years since San Diego’s longtime craft brewer opened its last restaurant, but now it’s ready to introduce its seventh location, this one in the 4S Ranch community just west of Rancho Bernardo.

The lag time between restaurant openings was due largely to the expansion of Karl Strauss’ brewing operation, which is now producing 40,000 barrels a year. The 44th-largest craft brewer in the country and the second-largest in the county, Karl Strauss opened its first restaurant in 1989 in downtown San Diego.

Its newest eatery will replace a former Chili’s in the 4S Commons Town Center, where there is only one other sit-down restaurant, said Melody Daversa, marketing manager for the brewery.

“There will be a mix of metal, stone and concrete on the outside, with large glass windows that peer into the operating brewery,” Daversa said. “When you go inside, the space will have an open, metro-loft, brewery vibe. We are using a lot of reclaimed wood, concrete, metal and glass to bring the brewery elements into the restaurant.”

The 6,463-square-foot restaurant and brewery will seat 149 inside and 104 on the patio, which will be the first of the restaurants to feature a fire pit.

Like the other locations, it will brew on-site a new beer each month and will offer tours of the brewery operation.

Sora

It sounds like an odd amalgam — classic Italian and Japanese cuisine — but it will be a first for San Diego when Sora opens downtown.

The new dining spot will be housed in the West Broadway location of the short-lived but well-received Crescent Heights, a casualty of the poor economic climate in 2009.

Alessandro Minutella, of Osteria Panevino, Chocolat and Greystone, believes his newest concept will thrive in a section of Broadway that’s had a hard time supporting restaurants. He’s teaming with Noriyoshi Teruya, the former head sushi chef at Nobu San Diego, and Daniele Visco, who was his general manager at Chocolat.

Minutella, who hails from Palermo, Sicily, describes the new restaurant as rustic Italian cuisine influenced by techniques and ingredients from Japan.

“Teruya always created these Italian dishes at Nobu for me with the Japanese technique. One time, I asked him what his dream was, and he said to open an Italian-Japanese restaurant,” Minutella recalled. “He said they’re very popular in Tokyo. We were looking for a smaller place, but this opportunity came to take over Crescent Heights, and we got a great deal, so we took a chance.”

Minutella is transforming the wine cellar into a cheese and charcuterie credenza in the middle of the restaurant, and he’s also getting a brick oven for specialty pizzas. Japanese-style tapas, he added, will be served at the bar.